Path 49 Revisited.

After lunch, seeing as the day was fine and warm with yer actual blue skies,  me and superdawg decided that since it was now February (pinch punch..), it was finally time to do our new adopt-a-path route.

And so, finding our warm gloves and lead, we headed off up the hill to find FP167 – a pleasant and well used path between two hedges.

We went on to FP49 (which is the one that started it all off in the first place) – FP51 (missing footpath sign.) Come to think of it, missing bus stop sign too. the timetable was there. But not the sign. A driver out before the gritter, most likely…

FP56 was next – an ancient path with a section of hollow way at the top. FP176, through the pastures and a muddy cropped field to Annapoorna.

FP108 another pasture and another mudfest – but this one has, in the past, been fertilised with night soil. Its full of ashes, pottery and bits of glass. Homelands Hospital , now closed, is nearby. Homelands was once the main hospital for Crook and Willington, pre-NHS days… I wonder if this is the source of the night soil?

Anyway – onwards to FP106, up to the golf course, and FP34 from the golf course, along the edge overlooking Crook where we were greeted by a gang of small ponies. FP106 and fP34 need some waymarking in the golf course grounds….

Then down the steep hill to join the Deerness valley Walk that takes us back to town.

I’ll do this again in July. Its a good walk – just under 7 miles and 650 feet of uphill.

I have to report all of this stuff to the County Council on line. Its a clunky system. I’ll do it later.

Can you spot the Ordnance Survey error on the map?

Crook Around The Compass – West

Well, this just about wraps it up for Crook around the compass. This walk was much like the others in the series – a very nice little trundle around snowy fields (I expect its not always this way) – but with a clumsy description. I got off route just the once and there was some minor trouble with some gorse, a missing footpath sign or two and a bit of route which could do with some of those little yellow waymarker signs you stick on fences…

But, as me and superdawg prepared for this walk (by having a late morning nap, followed by lunch and quite a lot of coffee) – we couldn’t help but notice, partly by the BBC News and partly by the view out of the window, that it was in fact, deep mid winter outside and a frosty wind was making moan. And we noticed, through our powers of observation, that the ground was as hard as iron and any water that was around was like a stone. This was lucky cos otherwise we’d have got really muddy on this walk.

We didn’t particularly notice and Cherubim or Seraphim by the way, but some very large East Coast snow shower clouds did build up towards sunset.

Anyway, its a good walk – ideal for a summer’s evening.

The walk is four miles, but I did five and Bruno did about thirty as he was bouncing around in the snow quite a bit.

I’ve suggested to the County that these four short walks around Crook could be put into the summer guided walks programme as evening walks for people who are just starting to go for walks….  this way, I get to lead walks at a nice Knipey, beta blocky sort of pace and we can celebrate afterwards in the Farrer’s Arms.

Howden le Wear walks are next for inspection.

Crook Around the Compass – South

And Lo! (Note the Christmas theme by the way) – Lo! The Angel of the North came down in a wakening light and saith “Go Forth and do Crook South and take thy dog cos he’s ripping yer socks up and needs a walk”. And so, it came to pass that I went forth and did Crook Around the Compass – South. Just “West” to do, then there’s three more at Howden le Wear.

This is a three and a half mile walk. I did four, because I walked to the start. 
Its a good walk, although I did get a bit lost at one point after following the footprints of local dog walkers instead of the right of way, but I soon relocated myself again.

At one point, a local farmer has built a fence across the path, but the local League Against Building Fences Across Our Dog Walks (Labfoudw), have wrecked the fence.  Direct action, that is…
Somebody I met recognised Bruno from the Pie Blog and we had a bit of a chat about the local paths.

The route is good but the description is a bit awkward in places and really needs the attention of somebody skilled in writing route descriptions. It would seem that most of the paths are very well used by locals. I’ve reported my findings to the County Council access and rights of way peeps.

Nice day for it, though…… Bruno enjoyed bouncing around.
More later…

Crook Around the Compass – East

“I’ve had all I can stands, I can’t stands na more.” Popeye.
So, today me and superdawg braved the blustering blizzards to go and have a look at the second of the Crook Around the Compass walks – this time it was East. This starts in the same place as “North” and suffers the initial indignity of having the route description and the map not matching at all.

But the rest of the walk, which is a complex route of many turns and various nooks, not to say, crannies, that the route description could best be described in exactly the same way as John Donohue, TGO vetter extraordinaire once described my attempts at Gaelic place names. Brave, but futile.

The route was made al the more interesting by the fierce and protracted blizzards of snow and hail which batterred me and superdawg for most of the morning. Then there was the matter of the outrageously deep snow. Most of the time this was merely knee deep, for those of us blessed with a fine pair of primate legs. Shorter, more canine legs left delicate bits of the anatomy deep under cold snow. Bruno didn’t seem to mind. I would have complained a bit more.

In fact, Bruno thought the whole adventure a bit of a jape and bounced around like a puppy. The idiot. 

The route itself is fairly complex (I may have mentioned this above) but is interesting and has a short but quite fine high-level traipse across pastures with an ariel view of Crook.
It also has, believe it or not, a bit of avalanche debris in an old quarry or delve. I expect this is temporary and fairly unusual.
For those concerned with such things, there is NO barbed wire (there is an electrified fence at one point) and , as the centre of Crook is visited, it does have a selection of pubs. More pubs than you can shake a pair of doggy antlers at, in fact.

Which brings me to Bruno’s Christmas outfit. Supplied by Rachel whilst I was out shopping for wor tea and trying to push a car out of a snowdrift.
Crook East is 3 miles and 500 feet of ascent. I did four miles, so, that’s one louder.
That deep snow doesn’t half get your calf muscles. The case for snow shoes strengthens.

Crook Around the Compass – North

The Durham County Council Rights of Way Supremo recently suggested that as I wander aimlessly as a cloud around Crook quite a lot, that I could also keep an eye on some paths/routes which were developed by the local Council (wear valley at the time), the local ramblers and the local Walking for Health peeps.

There are four walks around Crook – North, South, East and West – hence Crook around the compass and  three around the nearby village of Howden-le-Wear.

Today, me and Superdawg set off in incipient snowstorms to have a look at the North walk.

I must say, I didn’t think much of the route description, which has metal gates where there are no metal gates and tracks which are footpaths and so on. There are missing “bridleway” signs and waymarks and the two stiles on the route are defended by adjacent b*****d wire (censored for the sensitivities of Moffateers who had a traumatic experience with this stuff). But despite the driech weather and the new open cast coal mine next to one part of the walk, its basically a very nice walk. It has two pubs and an off-licence as well, so its ideal for a summer evening. And it’s dog friendly too.

I did come across two off-road motorcyclists , whom I deliberately got in the way of. Eventually, when I let the first one past, he saluted me in a rather strange sort of manner, and the second stopped to chat. I pointed out that they weren’t supposed to be riding motorbikes on the bridleway, at which point the lad demonstrated his flashing blue lights and explained that he was a policeman on a bit of a jolly patrol. Thats OK then.

Their number plates were illegally covered in mud by the way.

Anyway, the walk is three miles and about 300 feet of uphill, so its fairly easy. I did an extra mile. (eck!)

And it was snowing, though not sticking. Its a week earlier than similar weather last year, though, and we all know what happened last winter…

Post Prandial Path Patrol or Playtime for Superdawg

After lunch (that was the prandial part, people…) it became time for me to do my bi-annual patrol of certain footpaths as part of my Voluntary Rangering, or Adopt-a-Path duty. Its not really a “duty” in the strictest sense, its really a walk where I get to go “tut tut, would you look at that “ and “tsk tsk, have you seen the state of that stile?”

The adopt-a-path patrol approaches The Farrers Arms

And so, me and superdawg set off once again into the snow, which was ever-so-slightly deeper than it was yesterday (about another 3 or 4 inches, I would guess)

Not that way…

We followed our well-established route from the Farrera Arms up to Roddymoor and then by various rights of way up to Billy Row church, then around the back of Stanley Crook and back down the hill to Crook.

I couldn’t find much to whinge about, really – just some waymarks missing. the wobbly stiles noted the last time I did this walk, back on the hottest day of the year (see intro pic of Bruno’s tongue) – had either been fixed or were frozen so solid as not to wobble.

Breaking a trail (in the wrong direction)

There was deep, undrifted snow in the fields, and some moderate drifts. Kids were sledging nearby. It was a beautiful sunny day. Bruno thought it was all quite fab.

Bridleway to Crook

It was also quite hard work. I really do need those snow shoes if its going to continue like this. This is getting to be like the winter was when I first arrived in Crook in 1985. The snowdrifts on the moors lasted into May.

Measures to reduce carbon emissions go too far this time

Brian rang last night and described the conditions at Nenthead where the snow is many times deeper than it is here, apparently. All of the trans-Pennine routes are closed, though, apart from the Aire and Tyne gaps – too far to go around to Nenthead. If I get the snowshoes, I might walk over from Weardale.

How did they know when they put the sign up?

I don’t suppose anybody’s seen hide or hair of any binmen at all?

5 miles and 650 feet of ascent today, though it felt like more. Much, much more.....

I’ll be back in July providing the snow has melted

Adopt-a-path stuff

I used to do a fair bit as a voluntary Ranger for Durham County Council, but I gave it all up after I got the notion that I should make space for "something", but not quite knowing what the something was.

Any road up, I kept my adopt-a-path duties on. These aren't very onerous and , frankly, get me out of the house yet one more time - er.. actually, its four times. I walk around two routes consisting of linked paths twice a year. One set at Crook and another at Blanchland/Edmundbyers. January is the time to do the ones at Crook.

The purpose of this little jaunt is to report back to the DCC on the state of the footpaths and report anything untoward such as a duff stile or a mad axeman slavering wildly at the thought of dismembering a member of Crook Ramblers.

I took the dogs.

It were grand. No really bad axemen, just a bit of too much mud (currently frozen hard), one place to watch that doesnt get overgrown again like wot ot did last year, and a duff stile.

I like to return from this little 5 mile daunder and drink hot chocolate and eat toast in front of a roaring telly.

I'll be doing this walk again in July.